Press Release: Republicans Attack the District … Again

News Release — Office of DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Thursday March 9, 2023                                                                               

CONTACT: Lindsey Walton

WASHINGTON, DC – Less than 24 hours after the Senate voted to override a D.C. Act to reform the criminal code, several House Republicans have introduced a resolution to override another D.C. Act: The “Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022.” 

However, this bill is already law.  Substantially similar versions have been enacted on a temporary basis.  Three times both houses of Congress have allowed those temporary bills to pass Congressional review without even a single word of objection.

The legislation promotes accountability: codifying a Use of Force Review Board; establishing a Deputy Auditor for Public Safety; prohibiting MPD from hiring officers with a record of serious misconduct; strengthening training requirements; prohibiting the police union from bargaining the disciplinary process for its members, and a host of other common sense accountability reforms.

In fact, the legislation is not unlike the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that has bipartisan support in Congress.  Except the Congressional bill has struggled to gain support over police immunity – a provision that is not in the DC act.

“Clearly the DC FOP is behind this override bill,” Mendelson said. “They already took it to court. And lost. They ran cable TV ads against it last year.  Now they are going to Congress – and misrepresenting it – as a last, desperate attempt to avoid accountability.”  For instance, contrary to their claims:

• The act does not prohibit review of body worn camera footage by investigating officers.
• The act does not expand the Use of Force Review Board “to include anti-police activists.”
• The act does not “eliminate collective bargaining rights of police officers.”
• The act does not “eliminate the requirement of bringing timely discipline.”

Last October the DC Auditor released a report: 36 Fired MPD Officers Reinstated; Receive $14 million in Back Pay.  The report details difficulties in the disciplinary process that the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022 fixes.

“I hope Congress does not take up this latest override resolution,” says Mendelson.  “It’s not just a Statehood argument. I hope they will see that an override is a step back for good policing. And the hypocrisy of overturning legislation that they previously allowed to become law not once but three times.”

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